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| ruins of the Ludlow Massacre image found here: https://libcom.org/history/1914-the-ludlow-massacre |
On the bus ride home, I was reading about Burroughs from his anthology, Word Virus. I had just read about Burroughs' family's connection with Ludlow from the introduction. A passage read, "Burroughs' maternal uncle, Ivy Lee, a pioneer of public relations, had helped John D. Rockefeller Jr. improve his image after the Ludlow Massacre of 1914."
I thought, "Wow. How could something like that be summed up in a sentence with a note of slight connection between the author and this grand historic thing? [The connection was meant to show that William S. Burroughs was connected to many important and also, often "ominous" points in history by blood]. Also, I must (!) catch up and find out what this Ludlow thing was that happened."
It's been coming up a lot. At a dinner party last month, at the writing retreat fairly recently, and then a day or two ago or maybe even this morning, a line passing on the ticker tape at the Denver Post building showing the headline for their article for the recognition of the 100th anniversary of the Ludlow catastrophe. I never had time to follow up why it tickered by until now (quite literally, now).
Then, I looked down onto the bus floor. Right there, close to my left foot was a crumpled Westword for this week. It lay face up, a fiery painting of a miner staring up out of the floor, and inside the rag, the article, talking about Ludlow, speaking to why it's important to remember.
Strange how things are connected, indeed, and this is some deep stuff I'm reading, no matter how you go about it.
